The Good Fight
by Morganperidot
Summary: Alicia and Will confront the state's attorney's investigation of Will.
1. Chapter 1

The Good Fight

By Morganperidot

1.

The sound of her cell phone ringing woke Alicia Florick from a sound sleep. She reached for the phone on the nightstand and saw from the caller ID that it was Will. "Will?" she said, trying to keep the sleepiness out of her voice. "What's happened?"

"I need to see you," Will said. The words were from the familiar verbiage they used to maintain their clandestine affair, but his tone was tight and urgent in a way that wasn't lustful or seductive.

Alicia sat up on the bed. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you," Will said.

"OK, talk," Alicia said. She had a really bad feeling that whatever it was he wanted to say wasn't going to be something she wanted to hear.

"Not like this," Will said. "I need to tell you in person."

"It's the middle of the night," Alicia said. "I have the Monroe case in the morning, and my kids…"

"I know," Will said. There was silence for a moment and then he said, "Please, Alicia."

Alicia closed her eyes, took in a breath and released it. She hadn't heard him use that word, not like that, with earnestness and sincerity, in a long time. "OK," she said. "Where?"

"My place," Will said. "Thank you."

They both hung up, and Alicia got out of bed and dressed quickly in a navy pants suit with a light blue blouse beneath the jacket. She threw on a pair of shoes, a superficial coating of makeup, tossed her phone in her purse, and opened her bedroom door.

Alicia found her son standing in the hallway. "Zach, what are you doing up?" she asked quietly, trying not to wake Grace as well.

"I heard the phone ring," Zach said. "Is something wrong? Is it Dad?"

"No," Alicia said, herding him back toward his room. "It's just work," she said.

"This late?" Zach said.

"Clients have problems all hours of the day and night," Alicia said. At the doorway of his room she said, "Go back to sleep. I should be back in an hour; I don't think this will take long. You have that test today, right? You need your sleep."

"OK," Zach said, although he didn't seem entirely convinced by her story. Alicia grabbed her keys and left the apartment, trying not to think of the reasons that Will would insist on seeing her in the middle of the night.

2.

"Thank you for coming," Will said when he opened the door dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. Alicia didn't say anything in response, just walked past him. "I know this is an awkward…"

"I'm here," Alicia said. "So talk. I need to get back to my kids."

Will closed the door. He stood there looking at her for a moment, having second thoughts about whether this was the right thing to do. But he knew that was why he had decided to do it this way, because if he waited any longer he would never do it. "I'm being investigated," he said. He figured that was the worst of it, so he threw that one out first.

"Investigated?" Alicia said. "For what?"

"Judicial impropriety," Will said. He walked over to the table where he had left a half-drained glass of scotch. "The state's attorney's office is investigating an allegation that I've gotten judges involved in gambling so that I could use their debts against them to influence their decisions. It's a very complex scheme." He took a swallow of the scotch and closed his eyes while it burned a path down his throat. When Alicia didn't speak he opened his eyes; he couldn't read the look on her face. She was a good lawyer that way, as well as a lot of others.

"And?" she said finally.

"It's BS," Will said, "but it isn't going to go away."

"Because of Peter," Alicia said.

"Because of us," Will said. He emptied the glass and set it down. "I talked to Peter a couple of weeks ago," he said. "It's personal. That's all it is. I thought they were going after me to get to a client, but that isn't the case. It's just personal."

Alicia went over to the black sofa in the middle of the room, in front of the large TV and stereo and next to the windows that looked out over an amazing view of Chicago, and sat down. "You talked to Peter about this a couple weeks ago," she said.

"I thought it was something I could handle," Will said.

"And you thought you wouldn't tell me – and then you would just lie to my face when I asked if you saw him," Alicia said. "Does that sum it up?"

"I didn't see a reason to discuss it," Will said. "They were trying to dig around in something that was already dead and buried…"

"Something else?" Alicia said.

"A gambling debt of mine," Will said. "I covered it in a way I shouldn't have, but it turned out all right. It was years and years ago. It wasn't anything they could get me with."

"But this is," Alicia said.

Will shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "If they get people to say things – pressure people – they might be able to work it."

"And have you disbarred," Alicia said. "Destroy the firm." She put her hands over her face for a moment, then lowered them. "Does Diane know?" she asked.

"Yes," Will said. "Wendy Scott Carr is the special prosecutor, and she talked to Diane." He hesitated a moment and then let the other shoe drop, "Diane also knows about us."

"She seems to have suspicions," Alicia said.

"She knows," Will said. "She thinks that if we end it the SA's office will back off me, and it will save the firm. She told me to end it." He walked over to the sofa and sat down close to Alicia. She was so beautiful; part of him wanted to just grab her and kiss her and pretend that all of this wasn't happening. It hurt to see how she looked at him when she finally brought her gaze to his. He wanted to hold her and tell her to forget about it. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, more than he had expected to or even wanted. But he knew he had to wait and let her have her say now that he had finished his.

"Is that why you called me?" Alicia asked. "Is that what this is, you ending it?"

"I…"

"You wanted this," Alicia said. "You pushed for it. And now when things are difficult for you, now you want to break it off and save yourself." She stood up. "You know I thought you were a better man than Peter, Will, but you are just the same. You use people and you hurt people, and underneath it all your only concern is yourself."

Will stood up. "That isn't true," he said. "I've been agonizing over…"

"I'm sure you have," Alicia said. "It sure would be hard to give up the no-strings booty calls just to pull your ass out of the fire." She took a step away, but Will grabbed her arm. "Let me go, Will. It's over."

"That isn't what I want," Will said. "None of this is what I wanted." He let go of her. "I thought when you and I, when we got together it would be something different than this. It wasn't about no-strings booty calls. I wanted the strings."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Alicia said.

"Yes, it does," Will said. "I'm worried about what the investigation will lead to. Hell, I'm damn scared. If they take me down, if they use this to destroy the firm…"

"Just do what you need to do, Will," Alicia said. "Save the firm."

"That isn't what I need," Will said.

Alicia turned and looked at him. "This thing between us isn't going to work," she said. "Maybe it's for the best that…"

"Peter wins?" Will said. "It's for the best that Peter wins again? That he uses some trumped up charge to take me out of this?"

"You've already said that he won't give up, and you can't fight it…"

"I can't fight it alone," Will said. "He'll destroy me, everything I am and everything I've built. If I'm alone in this I can't do it. That's why I called you…I asked you to come here…because I want you to fight with me."

Alicia said nothing, just stood there no more than a foot away from him, looking in his eyes in silence. Then finally she said, "I don't know, Will. I don't know if I can do that." She turned away then and left without another word.


	2. Chapter 2

The Good Fight: Part 2

By Morganperidot

1.

Alicia spent the morning of the next day occupied by the Monroe trial, a complex case that required her undivided attention. She didn't think of Will until lunch time, when she looked at her phone and saw that there were none of the usual missed calls or texts. It hurt her to think of the look on his face when he had asked her to fight with him and she had been unable to agree to do so. And it angered her that this was all about Peter's pettiness and jealousy. He had no right to destroy Will's career because he had destroyed his own personal life.

Alicia sighed as she walked into Lockhart Gardner. She didn't know where this was going to lead, but there was really no good possibility. She walked by Will's office and saw that it was empty. Where was he? Was he just hurt or was he angry as well? And what was he going to do about the state's attorney's office's investigation?

Alicia wondered if talking with Diane might help to diffuse some of the tension. She walked on to Diane's office, but stopped when she saw what was going on inside. Diane was in her chair and Will was standing beside her, leaning against her desk, talking. Alicia had the sudden sure feeling that he was selling them out to save himself – which was exactly what she had told him to do. But the thought that he would actually do it shocked her to the core. Somehow she had thought that no matter what he had said about not fighting alone he still would – or he would at least give her time to decide whether she could get on board.

Alicia turned away and went to her office where she just sat and stared blankly at her computer. She wondered if she should have just agreed to fight with him no matter what it might mean for the firm and her family. Should she have taken that leap of faith? She didn't know. And she didn't know how to decide. She caught a glimpse of orange out of the corner of her eye and looked up to see Kalinda walking past, her orange leather jacket and skirt the opposite of Alicia's own gray silk suit. Kalinda kept walking a few more steps, but then she stopped and looked over at Alicia's office. Alicia held her gaze, and Kalinda turned and walked back to Alicia's office and stood in the doorway.

"What?" Kalinda said.

"Nothing," Alicia said, and she looked away.

"You want to talk?" Kalinda said.

"No," Alicia said.

"It's about Will?" Kalinda said.

Alicia looked back at Kalinda, and for a moment she saw the friend that Kalinda had been before the secret about her sleeping with Peter had come to light. Then she saw Will walk down the hall, look at her, and just walk by. "Come in and close the door," she said.

2.

Will leaned back in his desk chair and closed his eyes. He thought about college, law school, starting out, and building the firm. He knew it was just a company, but it was one he had built from the ground up, one that bore his name as partner the way he had always dreamed it would. He liked the feel of it and the way it felt to be one of the two partners at the head of it.

But he also liked how it felt to be with Alicia; there was no doubt of that. He had lost her once, lost her to Peter, and that had been the worst loss of his life, professional or personal. To have her in his life again – that was something he had never expected. And yet it happened; they had reached the point where they could talk, kiss, make love, and hold each other in the darkness. But he had never said to her I love you, mostly because he was afraid she couldn't say the same in return.

He wasn't the type of man to put his cards face up on the table, but that was something he had done last night. He had asked for help – for them, for him, for their firm – and she had walked out. She might as well have said she didn't care if Peter's wolves tore him apart; she wasn't going to fight for him.

Will opened his eyes. He felt so damn empty. The anger was still there, but it was like an echo of a feeling that was no longer viable, like his love for Alicia. He stared across the space of his large office. He could have the firm, and Peter could win. He could work with Alicia, and that would be the end of it. Life would go on the way it always had; he had never been unhappy with that.

So why was he so miserable now?

3.

"Talk to me," Kalinda said. She was seated on the couch in Alicia's office, looking intently at Alicia with her dark intelligent eyes.

"You didn't care that what you did hurt Peter's wife," Alicia said.

"There's no point in…"

"Answer it," Alicia said, not sure why it mattered, but knowing that she could never get past the fact of it until she knew.

"It was a mistake," Kalinda said. "That was why it only happened the one time."

"How was it a mistake?" Alicia asked.

"It happened for all the wrong reasons," Kalinda said. "If you want me to say I'm sorry, I am. I didn't mean to hurt you, and I shouldn't have kept it from you. But I didn't see a point in bringing up something that meant nothing to Peter or me. It just happened."

"You were my friend…"

"I'm still your friend," Kalinda said. Alicia sighed; she wished that were true. "Talk to me about Will. I know about the SA's investigation. The motive behind it is to destroy Will or break up the two of you."

Alicia stood up. She was torn about discussing this with Kalinda; part of her desperately wanted to, but the other part told her that this was the wrong person. But who else was there? She had no friends, and now Will was out of reach as well. "Will called me last night," Alicia said. "I went to his place, and he wanted me to fight with him for our relationship and the firm. I told him I didn't know if I could do that."

"And now?" Kalinda asked.

"Now I think that doesn't matter anymore," Alicia said. "He was in Diane's office…"

"That wasn't about this," Kalinda said.

Alicia looked at her. "How could you know that?" she asked.

"I just know," Kalinda said, but she didn't elaborate. "Look, Will is worried about how all of this is going to come down. He would have to be. But that doesn't mean that the firm is more important to him. It just means he doesn't want to lose you or the firm."

"I don't know what I can do though," Alicia said. "It just seems like everything is blowing up…"

"Which is what happens when you put something high pressured in a small, sealed box," Kalinda said. "It's going to explode. You have to bring this in the open, or you have to shut it down. That's your choice. Just don't let Peter make it for you."

Peter, Alicia thought. Again, it was all about Peter. From the moment she had chose him over Will her life had become about him – marriage, kids, not working, living a society life – all of that had been what he wanted. And then he had wanted to fool around and still have her stand beside him. And now he still wanted to control her relationship with Will and her work. "Damn him," Alicia said.

Kalinda smiled.

4.

Will was surprised to get the text from Alicia: Downstairs in 15. He went to his private bathroom, combed his hair, and sighed. He figured this was probably it, and for a moment he hesitated. But he knew not going wasn't going to change things.

Downstairs meant the empty suite on the fourth floor, which had been recently vacated by another law office. Will had finagled the keys from the owner of the building with the help of a hefty bribe. And it had been worth every penny – at least until now.

Will took the elevator down and walked to the door of the suite, which was slightly ajar. He pushed it open gently with his hand, stepped inside, and then closed the door. The lights were off; he didn't turn them on. He just stood there with his heart pounding, waiting for the boom to be lowered.

"I have a question for you, counselor," Alicia said.

Will glanced to his right where she stood in the shadows. "Anything," he said softly, although he wasn't entire sure he meant that.

She took a few steps closer to him, and for a moment Will had the crazy idea that he was about to be murdered. Of course that would solve all his problems, so that might not be so crazy after all. "Did you tell Diane it's over?" Alicia asked.

"Is it?" Will asked in reply.

"You first," Alicia said. She was close now, and the attraction was so strong that he couldn't resist it. Will pulled her against him and captured her lips with his firmly, urgently. He started to think ahead: not here now, too early – the hotel or his place but what if… And then she pressed him away from her. "Answer the question," she said.

"No," Will said. "Now answer mine." Alicia brought her lips back to his in a passionate kiss that he knew didn't really answer his question. But he had no desire to ask it again. "The hotel?" he asked.

"I need an hour," Alicia said.

"For?" Will said.

"I'll tell you in an hour," Alicia said. She smiled and then left the suite.

Will let out the breath he was holding, rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and headed to the door.

5.

Alicia's heels clicked as she strode through the state's attorney's office. She smiled at Cary as she walked past his office, noting the size of it without a hint of envy. She kept walking until she got to Peter's office, and then, ignoring the protests of his assistant, she swung the door open and stepped inside.

Peter was there, talking with Wendy Scott Carr, who was seated in one of the visitor's chairs in front of his desk. When Peter saw here standing there he said simply, "Alicia?"

"Wendy, could you give us a few minutes alone?" Alicia said. "I'd like to speak to my husband."

There was a look of shock on Wendy's face, but she covered it quickly and said, "Of course." Alicia stepped aside so Wendy could leave the room. Then she shut the door to Peter's office.

"Is everything OK with the kids?" Peter asked. He looked surprised too, and a little off-balance.

"No, they're fine," Alicia said. She leaned against the door. "I just thought it was time we had an honest, open conversation," she said, "just you and me, husband and wife. Isn't it time for that?"

"What's going on, Alicia?" Peter said.

Alicia smiled. She walked over behind the chair Wendy had vacated and put her hands on the top of it. "Right," she said. "You don't do open and honest, do you, Peter? And as much as you might want to pretend that you're running a clean office this time, you don't do that either."

"Is this about Will Gardner?" Peter asked. "Because there are things about him that I'm sure he hasn't told you. You don't know him like…"

"Like what, Peter," Alicia said. "Like I know you? Well, actually that's where you're wrong. I may not know all of Will's secrets that you might have to throw in my face, but I do know one thing for sure: He's better than you."

Peter scrunched up his face. "What…"

"Oh, don't pretend that isn't what this is all about, Peter," Alicia purred darkly, savoring the moment. "It all comes down to the fact that I'm in his bed and not yours, and that you're afraid it's because you're not as good as him. Well, guess what, you're not."

"You're disgusting…"

Alicia laughed. "I am?" she said. "You're the one who left your wife and kids to sleep with whores and staff workers. You're the one who pretended to be the perfect husband while getting your kicks with common trash. You have no right to lord it over me or Will, Peter. You are at the very bottom of this."

"You know I didn't want to break up our family…"

"Right," Alicia said. "I was just supposed to forgive you and go on like what we had was perfect. Well, I'm sorry Peter but you didn't marry that fool. You married the one who took too damn long to get her eyes all the way open, but they are now. And I see exactly who you are and what you are doing. I see you trying to hide behind the "objectivity" of someone like Wendy Scott Carr. I see you using taxpayers' money to wage a personal vendetta. And I see a man who is afraid to let go, because he knows when he does he has to face that facts that he is the only one to blame."

"Get out of here," Peter growled.

"Oh, I will," Alicia said, and she smiled again. "And I'll go to Will. And I will stand beside him and let the whole world know just exactly who you are and why you are doing this. So, think twice about how objective all of this is, and how it would look in the media. Don't think I haven't learned a thing or two from Eli over the years. Image is everything, Mr. State's Attorney. Be careful how you play that game." She turned, walked to the door, and yanked it open. Then she looked back at him. "One more thing," she said. "You'll be hearing from my attorney." With that said, she walked away.


End file.
